Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/114

102 could have done had they been his own sons, he now set to work on the undertaking which he had in hand; and having at length completed the several parts, he constructed the chapel, erected the tomb, and arranged all the ornaments which he had prepared for the Church. The nave of that building forms a single cross at the upper part of the same, and at the lower end there are three crosses; the High Altar is in the centre, being wholly isolated in its upper part.

The Chapel of which there has been mention above, is supported at the angles by four large pillars, which also serve to sustain the cornice passing around it, and above which rise four round arches, turned immediately over the pillars. Of these arches, three are occupied by windows of no great size, and over them passes a cornice of a round form, which forms four angles between arch and arch at the lower edge, but takes the form of a basin or depressed cupola in the upper part.

For the four sides of the Altar, Fra Griovann’ Agnolo had prepared rich ornaments in marble, and above them he placed an exceedingly beautiful and splendidly decorated vase, also in marble, for the most holy Sacrament, two Angels of the natural size, and in marble like the rest, standing on each side thereof. Around the edge is a decoration formed of various stones inlaid on the marble ground, and exhibiting a beautiful and varied arrangement of marbles in different colours, and other precious stones, as for example, serpentines, porphyries, and jaspers. At the upper and principal wall of the Chapel, moreover, Giovann’ Agnolo prepared a base or socle, richly encrusted with similar vari-coloured marbles and stones, which extends from the floor to a height equal to that of the summit of the altar, and this forms the basement to four columns of marble which enclose three spaces; the central and largest of which contains a tomb, holding the relics of I know not what Saint; while in those on each side are two statues in marble representing two of the Evangelists.

Above the range of columns here described is a cornice, and over the cornice four more columns, but of smaller size: these support another cornice, divided into three square compartments, corresponding with the open spaces between